So, last year at Dragon*Con, I marched in the parade. I'd never been to D*C before, and I was worried this would, well, suck. However, it most assuredly did not suck, and I will march in the parade every year if I am at all able. I had a blast! I marched last year with a Periodic Table group. That's right, a hundred some odd folks marched in a living periodic table. I was concerned the crowd wouldn't "get it," but I forgot my audience. They loved it! People ate it up and started chanting things like "Elements! Elements!" and "Dude! Real science! How cool!" as we marched along.

And so I'm marching in said group again this year.

I'll most likely be pulling out Strontium again, as, well, it's Scottish, it can be radioactive, and its atomic number is 38 (that's for the Stargate fans), but I may switch to Nitrogen if the mood strikes me and it is still available when it does.

If you're going to Dragon*Con, and this little adventure seems like fun to you, please let me know, and I'll get you the info you need to march with us, or you can use the email address below. Right now, about half the elements are covered. We need more people!

If you're worried about a costume, don't be. All we ask is that your element be represented in name, symbol, number, and weight on the front of your costume. A simple t-shirt will do, but if you want to get more elaborate, that's fine, too!

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Actually, Strontium melts at the very hot temperature of 777 C, and it doesn't boil until 1392 C. So there.

*grin*

Yeah, I have a very, very neat idea for N that I've had for some time, but I just don't think I can give up my Sr. I picked it last year when about half the elements were taken. I wanted a noble gas (who wouldnt?) but they were all spoken for. I thought about Hg, which is my favorite element to play with in its natural state. I considered Vanadium, because it'd be fun to dress up like a goddess. But when I discovered Sr was named after a Scottish village and that it was number 38 to boot, well, the game was done. Sr it was.

Besides while melting and boiling points are very high for Sr, it is quite soft, and it ignites at room temperature if its in a powdered form. Yeah...seems about right.

Dear daughter is coming and just consented to be N. I picked Y because most of the good ones were already gone and it seems easy to find something metallic, slippery and silvery. Or should I go with an LED (it helps phosphers glow)?

Okay, so here's my idea for N. Use or not. I'm fine either way, but I get a giggle from it, so...whatever.

So:

One of the age old silly questions kids like to ask to try to stump people and that older people use to be very rhetorical is 'why is the sky blue?' Well, the fact is that that answer is very simple.

Nitrogen.

When white light from the sun hits our atmosphere, it is refracted into the visible spectrum of colors. Red, green, blue, etc. (DRATW!) But because our atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and nitrogen absorbs most colors except blue, blue gets through and that's why we see our sky as blue.

It's blue because of the refractive index of nitrogen.

So, my shirt idea for N is:

Sky blue tee-shirt.

On the back the phrase. "Go ahead. Ask me why the sky is blue."

And on the front, so you can turn around and answer anyone who asks, the atomic tile for nitrogen.

Let me think on that one. Of course, it's named after a village in Sweden, so you could do all flag-like, like me, but...hm...

Or, um, Palladium's available. Go Iron Man? (If I had time, I'd whip up an arc reactor! There are great tutorials online! Oh, why can't I be all of them?!?) I can think of easy ones for Iodine, Cadmium, Europium, Bismuth, Nickel, Sulfur, Potassium, Aluminum, Hydrogen, and Neptunium, too. If you can't think of something for Y, let me know and I'll hook you up...but sticking with your first choice and letting your own creative juices flow seems quite right to me!

No they wouldn't. You can check firearms, so why would glowsticks be a problem? (No, really. You can take rifles, shotguns, pistols, swords, etc, so...)

My dad works for TSA and I always call and ask him when I'm talking something funny, and he's always like, "Dude, you can take WHATEVER you want in a checked bag." He always acts like I'm crazy for asking, in fact.

I was concerned about my lightsaber, as it's a metal tube and looks like, oh, a pipe bomb, but there are certain things they look for that indicate a source of ignition, etc, that are not present there. He went through it with me, but I don't remember what they are.

Bottom line? You can take what you want in a checked bag, as long as you follow the rules (guns unloaded, in their own case, etc). You might consider telling them (I will be carrying swords this year and will declare them), but for glow sticks I wouldn't even bother.